Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  B144  ·  Sh2-101
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The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) and Cygnus X-1 Bow Shock, Luca Marinelli
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The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) and Cygnus X-1 Bow Shock

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The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) and Cygnus X-1 Bow Shock, Luca Marinelli
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The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) and Cygnus X-1 Bow Shock

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Description

The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) is a HII emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus at a distance of about 6,000 light years from Earth. It is in close proximity to microquasar Cygnus X-1, site of one of the first suspected black holes. Cygnus X-1 is the brighter of the two stars at the end of the lower petal of the Tulip.

Cygnus X-1 was discovered in 1964 during a rocket flight and is one of the strongest X-ray sources seen from Earth. It remains among the most studied astronomical objects in its class. The compact object is now estimated to have a mass about 14.8 times the mass of the Sun and has been shown to be too small to be any known kind of normal star, or other likely object besides a black hole.

Cygnus X-1 belongs to a high-mass X-ray binary system that includes a blue supergiant variable star designated HDE 226868[18] which it orbits at about 0.2 AU. A stellar wind from the star provides material for an accretion disk around the X-ray source. Matter in the inner disk is heated to millions of degrees, generating the observed X-rays. A pair of jets radiating from the accretion disk of the black hole are colliding with the interstellar material to form the curved shock front (in blue) at the right of the Tulip.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_X-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh2-101

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/online-gallery/tulip-nebula-with-cygnus-x-1-bow-shock/

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    The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) and Cygnus X-1 Bow Shock, Luca Marinelli
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    The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) and Cygnus X-1 Bow Shock, Luca Marinelli
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    The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) and Cygnus X-1 Bow Shock, Luca Marinelli
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The Tulip Nebula (Sh2-101) and Cygnus X-1 Bow Shock, Luca Marinelli